Sunday, 23 September 2012

Band To Check Out: The Yours

Article by KevW

Being a UK-based site it's unsurprising that much of the music we feature is from the UK, North America and Europe as scenes and styles translate well and, certainly with North America, there's no language barrier preventing the music from seeping into UK press, radio, TV, websites etc. In the past five years we've been lucky enough to be pointed in the direction of some great bands from a little further afield. I think I can be fairly confident in saying that The Yours are the first group from Hong Kong to have graced our ears, and we'd like to tell you a bit about the music scene there, but frankly we haven't got a clue. If we take The Yours as a barometer then there could be some undiscovered treasure to be hunted down (and feel free to drop us an email if so...), if not then there's certainly an appetite. The Yours have supported Yuck, The Drums and even The Jesus & Mary Chain at gigs back home.

That trio of bands also form a tidy little descriptive package of how The Yours' own music sounds. They've been around for a while, releasing an EP in 2005, but it's taken them until now to produce follow-up 'The Way We Were'. Tracks from both are available to stream or download on bandcamp and you should find that they're inspired by punk rock and distortion heroes such as Sonic Youth and My Bloody Valentine. This is punk in structure and ideals, but fed through an array of pedals and with an ear for a big pop hook. The Yours have got this template nailed down and it sounds like second nature to them. With a natural style that fits, all you need then is the tunes and they're not short on those. We've selected 'Slip Out' and 'Straighthead' as examples but there's a goldmine just waiting for anyone who likes their guitars scuzzy, their melodies sweet and their production gracefully ragged.Slip Out by The YoursStraighthead by The Yours
The Yours' website